I met my fiancée, soon-to-be-wife, in a bar; however, I almost didn’t. We’ll get to investments and the question of, “What is a good rate of return on a 401(k)” soon, but first, a story about ranges of outcomes and why they matter. The story will help bring to life the role luck, chance, and … Read more
I didn’t buy a bond backed by the full faith and credit of the US Government even though it is yielding 7.12% in a world where many other government bonds are yielding under 2%. Why? That’s what I am going to answer today. Economically, it makes sense to buy I Bonds. I have cash I … Read more
Are you outcome-focused or process-focused? Do you judge decisions as good or bad based on the outcome or the process? For example, if you ate healthily, exercised, and did the normal things you are supposed to do to live a long life and then died of cancer at an early age, was the decision to … Read more
My friend asked me questions the other day along the lines of, “What investments should I be choosing? How do I find the funds everybody is talking about that do well? Should I buy different types of funds?” I could have gone many ways with these questions, but I remembered what my tennis coach in … Read more
Rental properties are not passive income. Despite what financial pornography websites may say, rental properties and real estate investing are not easy paths to riches. People make it look easy. They may sell courses on real estate investing. You may hear it from a friend who got rich in real estate. They may tell you … Read more
People pay far too much attention to their performance on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Unfortunately, that’s a mistake. Even looking on a quarterly or yearly basis is fundamentally flawed. Imagine someone running a marathon and the announcer telling you how far they have gone after one second. It’s irrelevant. Nothing that happens in … Read more
I’ve held off writing about cryptocurrency because I was never sure what to make of it. I’m still not sure what to make of it. After watching it the past few years, I’ve yet to “invest” in it. I still can’t make sense of the long-term use of it. With that said, here’s my attempt … Read more
When I meet people and we start talking about the stock market, I frequently hear the statement, “I am scared of the stock market. Somebody I know lost a lot of money during a market crash. I don’t like to lose money.” I want to shift that thinking. I want to shift it from “losing … Read more
It’s January 2012 and Gold is at $1,738 an ounce. You bought it in January of 2001 for $266.20 an ounce. Over the last 11 years, your gold investment returned 552%! How do you feel? You probably feel amazing. You probably feel like the smartest investor in the room. You probably feel like gold is … Read more
Hiking in the Pacific Northwest can be an interesting experience. During the winter, many hikes start at a lower elevation with no snow, and midway through the hike, there are inches of snow, and then feet of snow. If you start from the bottom and judge the conditions solely based on what you see, you … Read more